Chief cricket writer for The Age

The BCCI issued a veiled threat, saying India could pull out of ICC events if the changes are not approved. Photo: Paul Rovere

Protection from Test relegation for the big three cricket nations - India, England and Australia - could be removed from controversial reforms to be discussed at International Cricket Council meetings next week.

A promotion and relegation system is one of the key planks of a position paper that recommends a radical overhaul of the way cricket is run and would give greater clout to the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Cricket Australia, and the England and Wales Cricket Board.

The draft paper states that major drawcards India, England and Australia would never drop into the bottom tier ''solely in order to protect ICC income due to the importance of those markets and teams to prospective ICC media rights buyers''.

But Fairfax Media understands that these exemptions, tied to a country's financial strength, are not set in stone and that CA will try to negotiate with India and England to have them removed from the final document.

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CA otherwise strongly supports having a top tier of eight Test nations, with the next eight playing in an Intercontinental Cup and the winner of that tournament playing off every four years against the No.8 team for the right to climb into the Test ranks.

CA chairman Wally Edwards this week defended the proposed reforms against a groundswell of condemnation, led by the Federation of International Cricketers' Associations, which said the changes would make the big three stronger while other nations would ''wither on the vine''.

But the plan's supporters portray it as a desperate attempt to save cricket from dysfunctional leadership amid fears that India, which generates up to 80 per cent of revenue, could break away from the ICC with devastating consequences for the other countries that depend on it for survival.

The proposal includes financial incentives for countries to play in ICC events, such as the World Cup and the Champion's Trophy.

The powerful BCCI this week issued a veiled threat to any full-member nations opposed to an overhaul of the ruling body, saying India could pull out of ICC events if the changes are not approved by the ICC's executive board.

It said a working committee had ''authorised the office bearers to enter into agreements with the ICC for participating in the ICC events and hosting ICC events, subject to the proposal being approved by the ICC board'', and claimed the changes were ''in the interests of cricket at large''.

''We have never said that [the proposal] was set in stone or a 'take-it-or-leave-it' proposition,'' a BCCI official added. ''It is clear that it is a draft and members can discuss it with their respective boards and it can be discussed in the ICC board meeting.''

The draft will be presented to the ICC executive board at a meeting in Dubai on Tuesday and Wednesday. Seven of the 10 Test-playing nations need to vote for the changes for them to be adopted.